Maid-zen’s Guide to Apartment Cleaning 101

Despite their smaller square footage apartments still require the regular cleaning and upkeep that you would need for a house twice the size. In fact, sometimes, the smaller square footage can exacerbate otherwise negligible messes and clutter. For the communities of Kingwood, Humble, and Atascocita, there are a fair amount of residents who live in apartments and condo units.

As a cleaning services provider, we don’t only work with single family homes – we clean them all, including apartments and condos. Just like we would with our single-family home customers, we want to make the day to day lives of our apartment and condo customers as hassle-free as possible, and the best way to do that is to provide helpful tips so they can keep their residence cleaner.

First, let’s understand the basic differences between cleaning an apartment and a cleaning an entire home.

The size – this is a no-brainer, but it’s essential knowledge. Simply put, apartments are typically smaller than homes with more compact or dual purposed rooms. You might think that means there’s less stuff to deal with, but on the contrary, smaller messes and clutter can seem like an even bigger problem

Number of amenities to deal with – A home has other things such as the garage, laundry room, porch, courtyard, driveway, and numerous other facilities that can make home cleaning a full-day job. Apartments, on the other hand, have connected rooms, which greatly expedite the overall cleaning process.

Dealing with other people’s wear and tear – you’re dealing with a group either way but with apartments and condos, you’re often dealing with friends or acquaintances as opposed to immediate family.

Maid-zen’s 3 Rules of Apartment Cleaning

1. Top-to-Bottom Rule

This is a simple one: clean fan blades, tabletops, shelves, cabinets before you clean the floors that way you don’t have to do the same job twice. By going top to bottom, you’ll make sure all dust and debris won’t land on a freshly cleaned floor.

2. Create a List of Priorities

Consider the different parts of each room or cleaning duties that you have and figure a logical place to start. If your laundry is always getting out of hand, that’s probably a good place to start. For apartment owners who have pets, the hair can get out of hand pretty quick, so focusing on floors might be your top priority.

By setting a priority cleaning list, you can make sure you’re staying on top of the big picture items without getting mired in the details.

3. Always Clean As You Go

The first rule to minimize the time you take on cleaning your apartment is to keep things clean on the go. Dishes, for example are a great place to start. Instead of putting them in the sink and leaving them for later, rinse and wash right away. Any piled dirt adds an extra minute to your cleaning schedule.

If you have something that should be put away or cleaned, do so immediately. If you’re not in a rush, a good productivity hack is to tackle anything that can take care of in two minutes or less. The same principle can be applied to community rooms, bedrooms, and bathrooms.

Our goal with this list isn’t to make our apartment customers feel like they always need to be cleaning – quite the opposite. By following these steps, you’ll be able to enjoy a cleaner house overall.